By Purabi Shridhar

While the world is talking about him, E Sreedharan, the main architect of Delhi Metro Railway, wonders what the fuss is all about.

He restores your faith in goodness. In basic values, honesty and integrity. And in grandma’s now-out-of-spin iteration to work hard and sincerely without concern for rewards.

seventy-one-year-old Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, Managing Director (MD), Delhi, Metro Rail Corporation, is only doing, what he says is his duty.

However, there must have been something about the way he is doing that, to be selected by ‘Time’ magazine as one of the most outstanding Asians, apart from the innumerable kudos coming his way from all quarters, including a Padmashree. “I’m not working for recognition or public relations. Sometimes I find this media attention, this euphoria, uncomfortable. What is so extraordinary about what I’m doing?” protests Sreedharan.

No Boss!
The modesty is not a put-on affair; it’s an integral part of his persona. Yet, Sreedharan is also a man of steel, standing firm by his conviction and professional approach despite falling out with his bosses.

“Oh, I’ve had plenty of differences. I’ve had my share of problems,” he laughs, with a suspicious twinkle in his eye, possibly at having left his quarrelsome bosses way behind, lost in anonymity.

They should have known better. Sreedharan is not one to shy away from challenges, nor is he the one to succumb to pressures, political or otherwise. He first proved his mettle as a 31-year old executive engineer, then with the Southern Railway. The Pambam Bridge connecting the Rameshwaram Island with mainland Tamil Nadu snapped under lashing waves, sweeping away a passenger train resulting in high fatalities.

“The railways set a target of six months for restoring it, my boss moved it to three months and I was able to do it in 46 days,” he says with quiet pride.

The Pambam affair also marked the setting of precedents by Sreedharan. The most notable being, that he technically retired from the Indian Railways in 1990 and went on to get an extension for 15 years, presiding over two major projects — Konkan Railway and Delhi Metro. “It’s not an extension, it’s a contract appointment,” he clarifies. With the Konkan Railway project, which, he “visualised, structured and carried out,” Sreedharan set another precedent — he raised public bonds. “After 36 years with the government and my experience in the railways, I knew the project would suffer for lack of funds, and so the public bonds.”

Home Truths
The unwavering dedication and focus are qualities that go back to his childhood in a remote village in the Palghat district of Kerala and the influence of his parents.
“My mother was totally illiterate, but I learnt certain basic virtues like dedication, hard work, not displeasing anyone, from her. My father was a little more ambitious, he was ready to make any sacrifice to educate us.” So, after schooling, Sreedharan joined Victoria College, Palghat, and then, completed his engineering from the Government Engineering College, Kakinanda. After a stint as a lecturer at Kerala Polytechnic, Calicut, and a year as an apprentice with Bombay Port Trust, he was selected to the Indian Railways Service of Engineers.

“It was a very prestigious service then,” Sreedharan recalls. And it was his career graph marked by complete dedication that saw him being put in charge of the prestigious Konkan railway project and now, the Delhi Metro.

It also gives him the right to bemoan the present state of Indian Railways: “I feel we’re about 15 to 20 years behind in technology. We need to spend more time in modernising the railways system and particularly, the management system.

The recent Rs 17,000-crore grant from the government for safety won’t get safety because money will not get the right culture into the organisation. Technology and money won’t work without the basic human element. In the Metro railway project, my main emphasis is on punctuality and integrity.”

And after his own experiences with past bosses, Sreedharan ensures that as a boss he is open and accessible to all. He is not a slave driver either — he leaves office every day between 6 pm and 6.15 pm, doesn’t carry work home and never misses evening walks with his wife Radha. “We go for a walk every evening, those are few intimate moments I cannot do without,” he says endearingly. None of his four children have followed him into the railways or for that matter into government service.

“I think it’s the regular transfers — I must have done 20 to 25 — that they did not want.”

Going Back
Like the clocks in the Metro office ticking away the days to the completion of the second phase of the Metro Railway, Sreedharan is also looking forward to finally retiring in 2005. It will be back to his “native village” in Kerala and in pursuit of his favourite spiritual activities. “My wife and children worry about whether I’ll miss all these activities,” he says, “they have no reason to worry.”

After all, Sreedharan knows he has discharged his ‘duties’.